Book View Café is having a year-end 50%-off sale on over 100 ebooks by authors such as Chaz Brenchley, Laura Anne Gilman, Katharine Kerr, Vonda McIntyre, and me!

Among my books, both The Dread Hammer and The Bohr Maker are on sale. If you’ve read one, now’s your chance to try the other. If you’ve tried both, please refer a friend. You won’t see the discount price on the book listing, but it will be automatically applied when you add the book to your shopping cart.

Again, here’s the link that will let you browse all books on-sale.

ON THE OTHER HAND, if you’re a regular Kobo Books customer, The Bohr Maker is also on sale there at 50% off with coupon code 50COUPON. You won’t see the sale price until you enter the coupon code, so don’t click “Buy Now.” Use the drop-down arrow to select “add to cart” instead.

And if you enjoy any of my books, please consider jumping the vendor boundary and reviewing them at Amazon and/or Barnes & Noble. Thanks to those who already have.

And thanks to all of you for stopping by and for putting up with me. BEST WISHES TO ALL FOR 2014!

For no particular reason, I’m putting The Dread Hammer ebook on sale for $2.99 until the end of the week — but only at my webstore.

The Dread Hammer is a fantasy novel, but it’s not “fat.” The print version comes in at a spare 214 pages, so no long-term commitments here! But if you like this one, there is a second book, Hepen The Watcher.

Here’s one reviewer’s conclusion about The Dread Hammer:
“It is the amount of heart this book has that really sells it for me. It is a book that falls into the gritty fantasy label for sure, but with a certain amount of sweetness.” —Fantasy Review Barn

And from an enthusiastic reader:
“Richly developed characters drive the action of the novel and lend it the feel of an epic fantasy without the page count. The book’s hero, Smoke, is an almost mythic figure: complex, powerful, and conflicted. Smoke’s relationships are filled with turmoil, passion, and deeply human moments. Smoke’s vulnerability serves as an excellent contrast to his power.” –Jared Nelson

Find the book on sale here. Scroll down to read the opening.

Nathan, at Fantasy Review Barn, posts a detailed and positive review of my “scoundrel-lit” novel The Dread Hammer:

Smoke is the core of the story, a wonderful flawed character. His love for Ketty is pure but it may be the only thing about him that is. A perfect killer with atrocities tied to him, he is feared by all. Alone among the Bidden he is unloved by the people, and shows them no love in return. If not for Ketty he may not have any cares in the world, yet hears the prayers of many in trouble and often answers them. Intriguing and hard to pin down is our Smoke, but a whole lot of fun to read about.

Read the entire review here.

I just finished reading my first Joe Abercrombie novel, Best Served Cold, including an interview at the end of the book in which the author is asked about the genre of “scoundrel lit”:

“I tend to think of it as ‘unheroic fantasy,’ but certainly there seems to be a real current within epic fantasy lately toward darker, grittier, more morally ambiguous, more character-centered writing.”

Suddenly I have a subgenre in which to place the Puzzle Land books–The Dread Hammer and Hepen the Watcher–with their murderous protagonist, Smoke.

I do have to admit that Smoke is not entirely bereft of qualms and affections. Still, “scoundrel lit” is a pretty good description.

I’m just back from a two-and-a-half week trip to the mainland. I’ll post more on that soon, but right now I’m in catch-up mode, so I just wanted to make a few announcements.

First, Laura Anne Gilman is giving away a print book every week through the end of August. This week the book is my own The Dread Hammer. You can enter to win by posting a comment on Laura Anne’s blog. Go visit! Comment! Make me look popular! 😉

Next, there’s a Dog Days of Summer Sale at Book View Café, running from August 1 – 15. Why not stop by? You might discover an author new to you.

Third, for those who prefer print books, my collection, Goddesses & Other Stories is now available in a print edition. Creating this book was an experiment. All my other hardcopy books are printed by a company called Lightning Source, but I wanted to try Amazon’s print-on-demand service, which has far-less-expensive set up charges. The experiment has turned out well. My proof copy looks as good as the Lightning Source books. There is one drawback though–at least for now, the print version is available only through Amazon. Find it here.

So…have you read my novel The Bohr Maker? I know that over the past year-and-a-half since the ebook has been available, a fair number of people have bought it. It’s consistently my best selling book, and you all know how much I appreciate that, right? But right now at Amazon, The Bohr Maker has 7 reviews total, and only three of those are from this past year. (Thank you, Eddie!) (more…)

Paul Weimer who requested Judith Tarr’s Writing Horses. Congratulations, Paul! I’ll be in touch with the how-to’s of picking up your ebook.

And if you’re not familiar with Paul, check him out on twitter at @princejvstin

Thanks once again to everyone who participated in Book View Café’s grand opening celebration, and to those who took advantage of the sale on The Dread Hammer. And if you have a chance to read The Dread Hammer, please, please, please go give it a quick review over at Amazon. You don’t need to have bought it there, to review it there.

Well, there’s no time like the present, because for a limited time you can get $2 off The Dread Hammer‘s ebook edition, by using the promo code PUZZLELANDS1. Only at Book View Café!

A coupon system is one of the cool new features of our revamped ebook store, and The Dread Hammer gets to be our first test specimen. You can buy either the epub (Nook) or mobi (Kindle) version. The ebook won’t load automatically onto your e-reader, but being DRM-free, you can either drag and drop it from your computer, email it to your e-reader if you’re set up for that or, if you have one of those flashy new tablets, you can probably just save it directly.

So if you haven’t read The Dread Hammer yet, now’s the time. And feel free to share the coupon code. We’d love more people to come check out the new store.